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De Grey had as many as 16 rigs on the ground at Hemi in 2022

Back on the ground, De Grey is preparing to fire up the
exploration crews after slowing the rate of drilling in the June and
September quarters.
Tornatora said there was still ample opportunity to extend known
resources and find new deposits.
“We scaled back from the 16 rigs we had in the March quarter
to just a few in June and September, but we are now back to
6-7 rigs again,” he said. “We are now doing a bit of DFS work –
geotech, metallurgical and infill drilling – with a bit more regional
work outside Hemi. After that, we will swing back into resource
definition because at Hemi and regionally, there are still targets.”
The company has restarted aircore and RC drilling as it targets
new prospects in the 15km long by 10km wide Greater Hemi
supply chains which have seen other projects slow in recent
corridor.
months. Beckwith said De Grey wasn’t concerned about the
current supply chain and inflationary pressures. In November, it reported hits from the Antwerp prospect with
“We are reacting to what we are seeing in the market,” he said. results of 2m @ 261 g/t gold from 36m, 1m @ 41.6 g/t from 59m
and 3m @ 2.7 g/t from 57m in aircore holes and 6m @ 4.4 g/t
“Existing producers are having to be very cautious on capital
management and allocation and they’re having to live with that from 28m, 6m @ 2.1 g/t from 43m and 25m @ 1 g/t from 78 in
RC holes.
day-to-day. But we’ll be coming in with a solid base and a clear
understanding of where costs are.” “There are still big areas that haven’t had a hole in them yet.
Whether they are another Hemi, a structural target or even
The WA gold sector has seen several false starts among
developers in 2022 but Beckwith insists Hemi’s quality means something new, we don’t know,” Beckwith said.
De Grey will be different. Underground targets are also on the agenda.
“Many of the issues in the emerging developers come down to “It is early days on the underground because we’ve only drilled
scale of resource and lack of flexibility, but Hemi is pretty robust 300-400m, going beyond that will take time,” Tornatora said.
and high grade, so the optionality to move within the pit is there,” When it does get around to drilling at depth, it appears likely De
he said. “The dimensions of the orebody also means there is Grey will follow a familiar pattern – success after success.
less risk. The Brolga starter pit alone will payback capital within
“Everything has gone pretty much as planned from discovery
two years.”
through to the PFS,” Jardine said. “The metallurgy was better
As well as engineering design, De Grey has recently stepped than expected, we’ve expanded the production profile and we
up its engagement with stakeholders, including the Traditional are finding more gold. And it is still early days. This project is less
Owners through the Kariyarra Aboriginal Corporation. than three years old and has the potential to get much bigger.”
“We have had very strong engagement with the Traditional If it does, De Grey and Hemi are likely to be a constant presence
Owners and it has been a good process,” Jardine said. “We are in the Explorer of the Year shortlist for several years to come.
working to the expectations of the new Heritage Act, so we’ve
incorporated all its aspects in our engagement. We believe we
will have an agreement in the not-too-distant future. Ours would Glenn Jardine
be the first agreement for the Kariyarra, so it is a big deal for both
of us.”
An agreement with Traditional Owners will be crucial to
locking away project financing, for which discussions have
also kicked off.
“We’ll look at every option on financing this project,” Jardine said.
“We have a major shareholder now in Gold Road [Resources
Ltd] with 19.5%. We know they can stump up the money when
they need to. They have the balance sheet strength and cashflow
that [previous major shareholder] DGO [Ltd] didn’t.
“We’ve had very strong interest from debt providers and equity
providers and we are operating on the basis that De Grey will take
Hemi to production. All our modelling says the best outcome for
shareholders is for De Grey to take the project into production,
that is why we are doing all that preparation at a company level.”

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